Students cannot be graded on learning skills like teamwork, punctuality, work ethic, attendance, participation and attitude

Teacher Joe Killoran says students should be marked on the their work ethic as well as their academic results.

By:Joe Killoran Published on Fri Aug 23 2013

Across the province students, parents, and teachers are preparing for a new school year. What angers many teachers and will likely surprise many parents is the fact that students cannot be graded on learning skills like teamwork, punctuality, work ethic, attendance, participation and attitude. According to the Ontario Ministry of Education’s policy document, Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools, “the evaluation of learning skills and work habits, apart from any that maybe included as part of a curriculum expectation in a subject or course, should not be considered in the determination of a student’s grades.”

What this means in practice is that students may not receive poor grades for lateness, misbehaviour, skipping, late assignments, laziness or inability to work with others. While these learning skills may be “assessed” on a specific section of the report card, they may not be “evaluated” (the use of two synonyms to convey different meanings puzzles many teachers) as part of the number grade.

The rationale that it is more important for students to think critically and understand the subject matter has some merit. Learning the course content is an important goal.

However, by forbidding the grading of learning skills, the ministry is handcuffing teachers. Rewarding participation, teamwork, and a positive attitude fosters the habits all students will need in their adult lives and careers, while deterring lateness and skipping extinguishes poor habits, likely to cause failure and unemployment.

There are bright students who can cram for tests and submit late assignments who excel in our system, just as there are determined, hardworking students who are never rewarded for their dedication. The bright student never develops the resilience she will need to succeed, while the hard worker learns her strengths do not really matter.

Surely any effective school system should grade learning skills as well as knowledge of course content. Punctuality, a positive attitude and a strong work ethic are at least as important as fulfilling course expectations like how to “assess how artistic expression has reflected Canadian identity since World War I” in history or being able to “identify general characteristics of a few different media forms and explain how they shape content and create meaning” in English class.

While the ministry does not prohibit giving zeros for missed assignments, it does discourage it, stating: “Many experts in the field of assessment and evaluation discourage deducting marks or giving zeros for late and missed assignments, arguing that such measures do not make students change their behaviour or help them succeed in the long run.”

These “experts” (or “edu-babblers,” as they are called by many classroom teachers) argue that a missed assignment provides only “zero evidence” rather than “evidence of zero.” Imagine an employee attempting this Orwellian doublespeak at work, contending that their failure to repair a car, prepare a presentation, or analyze a quarterly report cannot be cause for punishment or dismissal because they did not even attempt the task and so cannot be said to have done it poorly.

The ministry also advocates a “most-recent, most-consistent” approach to grading, stating “grades should reflect the student’s most consistent level of achievement, with special consideration given to more recent evidence.” This means that a student who earned a 50 per cent for the first half of the year and a 90 per cent for the second half could be given a mark of 90, while a student who did the reverse could earn only a 50.

Again, the goal of evaluating how much a student has learned by the end of the year makes some sense, but it bears no relation to how students are graded in university or how they are evaluated in the workplace. One need only imagine the decrease in a company’s output from January to June if employees knew only the second half of the year counted for their performance review, to see the flaw in this approach. Success or failure is determined by the sum total of one’s efforts in life, not simply how one has performed in the recent past. The sooner students learn this, the better off they will be.

The ministry’s approach to grading is well-intentioned but it does students no favours. Skills like meeting deadlines, showing up on time, and working hard matter in the real world. They should matter in school too.

Joe Killoran is a Toronto secondary school teacher.

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